Don't Hurt 'Em!
by JPPFox
Summary: Walter gets hired with H.T.U.V. Then he meets his first friend, who helps him through an especially hard time.
1. Chapter 1

"_Wait, Mommy, wait!" Walter ran up to her. "One last hug! I'm gonna miss you so much!" Wendy laughed and ruffled her son's unruly hair._

"_I love you, too, Walter. I'll miss you for all of the 10 hours I'm not next to you."_

_Walter looked up. "Don' hurt the bad guys, okay? They're people too, right?"_

"_You're right. They are people," she replied. "I'll do my very best not to get anyone scratched up!" As Wendy said this, she poked Walter in the belly a couple times. He laughed, falling to the floor with giggles. Wendy looked at her watch. "Shoot, Buddy. I gotta go. My shift starts in 20 minutes. Gramma'll take you to school."_

"_I gotta go to school today?" Walter looked up at her with mournful eyes. _

"_Yeah, it's unfortunate." Wendy lifted his fallen chin with the tips of her fingers. "But if those kids give you any more trouble, hit 'em with your glitter clouds, and then run away! I'll make sure to talk to the principal, if you need me to, alright?" Walter thought for a bit, then shook his head resolutely. _

"_No, I'll be fine. After all, bad guys are people too," _

"_You got it, kiddo." _

"_Bye, Mommy" _

"_Bye, Sweetheart."_

Walter woke up, breathing hard, sweating hard. This dream, it always came back at the worst moments. The night before his interview for H.T.U.V. Weapons Corporation. The night before the M.I.T. interview. Every night for years as a child soon after his mother's death. He cursed under his breath. "She should have hurt them. Why did I tell her not to hurt them?!" It was his fault. He had told her that bad guys were people too. And they were, he still believed that, but it had killed his mother! Closing his eyes, he let his consciousness drift back to that day, after school, when he had waited for hours for his mother to get back.

_A knock at the door. Walter looked up from the computer chip he was programming. That was weird. His mom usually didn't knock when she got home. She just walked in, asking Walter for a hug and a story about his day. Whatever the matter was, Walter was sure it was impolite to leave whoever was at the door waiting for too long. He opened up the door, finding a police uniform on the other side. _

"_Walter Beckett?"_

"_That's me!" Walter answered with his biggest smile. "Is Mommy working late tonight? I wanted to show her my holojector, before she left, but she had to go. She said she'd look at it as soon as she got home. What time is she getting back?" The officer gulped._

"_Um, Mr. Beckett-"_

"_Just call me young man, if you want to be formal. That's what Mommy calls me when I accidentally get glitter in the chili."_

"_Young man, would your grandmother happen to be here? I need to speak with her." Walter pointed him towards the kitchen. _

"_She likes to have a cup of tea after she picks me up from school." The officer walked in. He didn't come out until after Walter had gone to bed. Mommy still wasn't home, he thought, before climbing between the sheets. _

Walter shuddered. He thought about what had happened, as he had climbed out of bed the next morning, his gramma meeting him by the door with tears in her eyes, holding him tight as they both sobbed the day away. He thought of leaving school because he couldn't be around the kids who taunted him everyday without the emotional support his mother had provided him with. He thought about the aching inside of his heart, knowing that he was an orphan. He thought about-

He jerkily shook his head back and forth. He couldn't afford to dwell on this. He had a life-changing interview tomorrow! He couldn't very well stay up till-what time was it? 2:36 AM! He had to get back to sleep. Walter slid his lanky body out of bed, gave a very sleepy Lovey a pat on the head, used the restroom, then climbed back into his nest of pillows. Pulling the comforter taught over his shoulders, he allowed himself to pull up a visual of his mother inside his brain. In his imagination he kissed her on the cheek, and gave her a giant hug.

"Goodnight, Mom." He then promptly fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Walter rolled over and hit the snooze button. Then he jolted awake and checked the time. Shoot! He'd pressed snooze 3 times! Walter got out of bed, stripped, and threw himself into the shower. He scrubbed himself down, rinsed and turned off the water. Then he stepped out of the shower, dripping wet. After toweling himself down, he ironed his suit and put it on. He grabbed his backpack/jetpack/all-around-the-most-awesome-way-of-transportation, and placed a handful of gluten-free bread crumbs in front of Lovey, before pecking her goodbye. Then he stepped outside. Looking inside, he pulled out his pen and checked to make sure the rest of his inventions were packed away inside. Then, he clicked the red ink clicker on his pen and lifted off.

Flying was the best part of being a scientist, Walter decided as he soared over Washington D.C. He had perfected a nifty cloaking device made up of billions of micro-cameras that projected the image it saw in front of it to the opposite side. It did this on all sides, and it made up a little net that Walter could see through. Nobody saw anything when he was flying. It gave off a little bit of a shimmer, so it wasn't safe to use on the ground. Most reasonably attentive people would see the flickering and know something was there. When he was testing it out, he was accused of being a ghost 3 times. It was pretty hard to get out of those situations, but he had always managed it.

"Now let's see...where's the landing dock?"

Walter looked around and spotted a gray platform ejected from the side of the Washington Monument, facing away from the reflecting pool. He maneuvered his jetpack over and gently let himself down onto the platform. He then whipped off his net, folded it up neatly, and deposited it inside his backpack. Walter put his backpack on, then leaned casually against the side of the monument, waiting. Suddenly, metal cuffs came from inside the platform, and fit themselves snugly around his shoes.

"What the-"

But Walter could get no more words out, for the wall he had been leaning against split into two, and he had to regain his balance. The platform receded slowly into the wall and the doors shut behind it, leaving Walter staring into empty darkness.

"Holy c-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The platform shot down at the speed of light, trailing Walter behind it, who was screaming his lungs to pieces. Walter began to get used to the speed and started panting instead of screaming. The platform began to slow down, till it skidded to a stop in front of a door. A very reflective door. Walter saw that he was quite a sight. His combed hair was standing straight up, and the minimal amount of hair gel he had applied helped it stay that way. He had picked up a couple of cobwebs on the way down, and his eyes were the size of dinner plates. He was having a difficult time getting them to go back to normal. He began to pick off the dust and web bits, but then the door opened

And there stood Ms. Jenkins. The woman he had sent his application to. She was the one who had shown an interest in him and given him an interview.

"Walter Beckett, I assume," she drawled.

"Y-Yes, ma'am. That's me." Walter offered a quick dip of his head to show his respect for such an accomplished woman like her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Follow me." She turned around and made to walk away.

"U-Um, excuse me?" She turned her head back to him. Walter pointed to his feet.

"I can't move." The corners of her lips perked up in an almost-but-not-quite-smile. She raised her arm and rotated a button on the sleeve of her button-down blouse. The cuffs retreated into the ground.

"That should be better, I expect." Walter hurriedly stepped off the platform, looking back at it as if it might eat him. She turned back around and went through the door. Walter followed her. Walter had spent hours imagining what the inside of H.T.U.V. would look like. He was slightly disappointed because there was only a desk, glass, and a potted plant on it. There was a plush comfy chair on rollers behind it, and a hard plastic chair in front. Walter dutifully took his seat in the hard plasticky one. "Soooooo. Walter." Walter shifted his eyes around the room. The paint was grey and metallic. There were no windows. An air-conditioning vent was positioned about 2 feet directly above his head. Should the situation get hostile, he could probably click on his jetpack and get through that vent before- what was he thinking? It was a job interview, not a hostage negotiation! He couldn't help himself. He always tried to make sure there was a way out of a situation, in case something happened. "Walter!" Ms. Jenkins snapped her fingers. Walter dragged his attention back to her. This is my future at stake! he reminded himself.

"Yes, yes, I'm so sorry!" He rushed.

"No problem," Ms. Jenkins said, "But we have an interview to conduct." She circled around the desk and sat in the plush chair. Crossing her legs, she said, "May I look at your inventions?"

"My inventions? Of course!" Walter took off his backpack and dumped an array of colorful plastic trinkets in front of her. She picked up a small Rubik's cube and looked at it with a hint of disdain.

"You claim to have invented the Rubik's cube?" Walter snatched it back and began to turn its cubes in a specific pattern. Right left up left down right up down left left left left down right up up up…

"I find it easier for me to hide my inventions within others." He reached the end of his pattern. The Rubik's cube began to glow and tremble in his hands. At the last second, he remembered Ms. Jenkins, and ducked beneath her desk, pulling her down with him. He threw the Rubik's cube out from under the desk. Its cubes started flashing individually, blinking in a pattern. Faster and faster, they blinked, then, suddenly the cube went dark.

POOF. The room was covered in shots of color. The compressed colored powder that Walter had packed into each of the cubes the night before had jetted out in long streams. The grey walls were now frosted with turquoise, magenta, sunshine yellow, deep forest green, and a hundred other colors. The dead shell of the Rubik's cube lay in the center of the room.

A small cough came from next to Walter. Ms. Jenkins was blasted full in the face with indigo powder. " Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you to curl in on your face!" He stood up and pulled Ms. Jenkins out from under the desk. She wiped off her glasses and looked around the room.

"How did you fit all those colors in that small cube?"

"Wh-what? Oh, I used a custom-made stick to pack it down and compressed two different colors in each cube. I put a small, non-lethal blasting cap in the center that's activated when the Rubik's cube turns in a certain way. It took a long time because I had to alter the Rubik's cube a lot to get it to work."

"Fascinating. What else do you have?" Walter jumped and raced to his backpack. He pulled out a small container of bubbles, complete with a bubble-blowing stick.

"Here's my latest invention. I call it Binder Bubbles. The bubbles produced are strong enough to contain the blast from torpedos." Walter chuckled. "When I was testing them, Lovey, my pet pigeon, was stuck inside a bubble for 4 hours before it popped. This formula lasts for two or three minutes before popping."

Ms. Jenkins took the bottle and blew a bubble around the potted plant. The bubble lifted the plant into the air, and Ms. Jenkins grabbed it. She shook it back and forth. She tried to rip it apart with her fingers. She held it until it popped, and the plant fell back into her hands.

"I have more stuff if you want to see it," Walter said.

"No, this is quite enough," Ms. Jenkins answered. "Walter, sit down." Walter nervously took his seat. He stood up, and wiped the powder off his butt and chair, and then sat down again. Ms. Jenkins remained standing. "Walter Beckett, I would like to offer you a job at H.T.U.V." Walter's face turned red, and his mouth morphed into a smile so big his cheeks hurt.

"Thank you," he whispered, breathless.

"You have talent, Walter. Your weapons will be able to incapacitate our enemies with minimal damage to civilians and your fellow agents." Walter wanted to point out that they wouldn't hurt the bad guys either, but he didn't want to risk losing the job he just got.

"Thank you, ma'am. I really needed this job."

"Anyone who would pass up on hiring you would be an imbecile. I'm glad you applied. Now follow me. We'll go downstairs and find you an office." Walter looked down in wonder.

"You mean, there's more down there?" he asked. Ms. Jenkins chuckled

"Much, much more."


	3. Chapter 3

2 months later

Walter pulled on his lab coat and looked in the small mirror he kept on his desk. His hair was still wind-teased from the jetpack ride an hour ago. He made a futile attempt to tame his messy locks but soon gave up. Shrugging to himself, he opened his pack and pulled out the invention he'd been working on for a while. It was a fidget spinner. To activate it, you would press the finger grips together and whisper a code word programmed into the spinner's memory. Then you would spin it hard and throw it, Frisbee-like, at someone who needed to be incapacitated. The spinner, at the touch of body heat, was supposed to reconfigure into exceptionally thin, but unbreakable handcuffs. This was the part Walter was having trouble with. If the fidget wasn't sensitive enough to the body heat, it would bounce of the person, a regular fidget spinner. But if it was too sensitive, it would reconfigure while the spy was still speaking the code word, and handcuff them. The button that deactivated the handcuffs using fingerprint recognition wasn't where a person could reach it, so the spy would be stuck. Walter was working on finding a happy medium between the two levels of sensitivity.

He took out his mini screwdriver and opened up the control panel on the back. Pulling two wires tighter with his tweezers, he tied them together and snipped the ends. That should make it more compact, leaving more room for the more refined sensor he had ordered offline. Walter disconnected the old sensor, removed the new one from its packaging, and was working on installing it, when a large crash occurred on the other side of his cubicle office.

"Sorry, sorry!" a girl's voice shouted from the other side. Walter looked down, dismayed. The crash had startled him, making it so he jerked the tiny grey sensor off the spinner, and somewhere in the room. It was the exact same shade of grey as the floor was, so Walter got down on his hands and knees for what looked like a long search for a pinhead-sized grey cube. A pair of feet clad in lime green sneakers appeared in front of him. "What are you doing?" the same voice said.

"Don't come in here!" Walter told her.

"What? Why?"

"I lost something very small and fragile when that crash happened, and if I don't find it, I won't be able to finish my invention. If someone steps on it, the invention will be delayed for another week! I'm already late." The girl knelt next to him.

"I'll help, then. It's my fault anyway." Walter looked up and found himself looking directly at her face. He felt his cheeks grow a little warm. She was definitely attractive. Her hair was a similar shade of brown to his, but with small streaks of blond close to the roots. It fell to the middle of her shoulders. She wore glasses with tiny birds on the frames. Her eyes were a jewel-blue, with tiny specks of a darker blue near the edge of the iris and the pupil. She had a round and cheery face. She wasn't chubby, but she wasn't stick -thin like he was. She was somewhere in the middle, he decided.

" A-Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, totally. I knocked it on to the floor. I should help get it up. What does it look like?"

" Well, it's a tiny grey cube about the size of a pin's head."

"Whoof." She got onto her hands and knees and started combing the floor. "This will take some time."

"Tell me about it." There was silence for a couple of minutes before Walter attempted to make small talk. "What did you do to make the crash?" he asked.

"Oh." She laughed. "I knocked my computer off my desk." Walter's expression made her laugh harder. "Don't worry, it's not broken. I'm exceptionally clumsy, so technology had to come up with a bullet-proof computer for me. I'm not in technology, I'm in public relations, so I smooth stuff over when messes happen and the government can't come up with a good enough story. That's my talent, making up stories. Ms. Jenkins wanted me to stay with technology for a few days before I move to the upper levels. She said I could probably learn something from a Walter Beckett about patience and kindness. I almost failed my interview, because I have a bit of a fiery temper when people are rude or unkind. I'm supposed to go find him today. Do you know where he is?"

Walter smiled. "Actually, I'm Walter Beckett."

The girl smiled back. "Oh, cool! I'm two minutes into my job here, and I break my mentor's life-changing invention. I'm Theo, by the way."

"Theo?"

"Short for Theodora. My parents thought they were getting a boy. They both liked Theodore and didn't want to change the name. Originally, they called me Dora, but that's ugly. When I turned six, my birthday present was getting them to call me Theo instead."

"Smooth."

" I may not be calm about it, but I know how to get what I want." There was silence again, but it was a comfortable one this time. Then Theo sat up on her heels and offered something to Walter. "Is this it?" she asked him. In her hand, she held the sensor. Walter grabbed it and held it up to the light.

"Yup, this is it! Thanks for the help, Theo!"

"No problem. Can I watch you build what you're making? I promise I won't touch. Ms. Jenkins made me swear not to. Her exact words were 'If you ruin any piece of developing technology in this facility, you will be out of here faster than you can say 'Where's a broom?''" Walter snorted. Her impression was pretty spot on.

" 'Course you can. Just give me a little space and don't get your shadow in the light. Also, if you get handcuffed, it's not my fault."

"Handcuffed?"

"I'll explain later."

Walter put on his goggles, and began where he left off, attaching the sensor in six different places for a good hold on the inside. Spies were generally on the run a lot, so it was best to make their gadgets durable. He then replaced the plate that covered up the wiring, and screwed the fingergrip on top of it, hiding the fidget's awesome secret. "Ok," he said. "This will be my fault."

"What do you mean?" Theo started to back away.

Walter pressed the fidget spinner's grip together, whispered "Unity.", spun the fidget and threw it at Theo.

It hit her wrist and separted into two parts that slithered across her arms, secured themselves into thin metal wristbands, and then magnetically pulled her wrists together, creating transportable and durable handcuffs. Theo struggled, trying to pull the deceivingly thin bracelets apart.

"That won't work," Walter told her. "Those bracelets can withstand the pull of 1000 pounds." Theo stopped pulling and looked at Walter. For a split second, he thought she was angry. Then her face broke into a wide smile

"This is sick! When do these start production? I want one to subdue my nosy neighbors the next time they try to see how many lawn chairs I bought for my backyard!" Walter thought.

"I don't think you can get one. The tech here is strictly limited to spies. I'm really sorry." He was. At least his invention had impressed her so thoroughly. She walked over and nudged him with her shoulder.

"Hey, I didn't mean it. These are cool, but I wouldn't want to be hauled to the police for handcuffing an eighty-year-old to a fence. Speaking of, can you undo me now?"

Walter jumped. "Oh yeah, of course," He lifted her left wrist and located a small button on the side of the handcuffs. He pressed it. "Fingerprint authorized," a robotic voice chirped. The handcuffs fell onto the ground and reformed into the fidget spinner. Walter knelt down to pick up the spinner, and found himself looking at Theo's lime-green sneakers that he had previously noticed. "Nice shoes," he said. Theo looked down.

"Hey thanks! Lots of people wear really boring shoes. I like to wear brightly colored shoes. When you see me walking through a crowd, you can see the bright colors through everyone else's blues, greys, browns, and blacks."

"That's super cool. My inventions are all brightly colored, too. I think color makes the world a better place." Theo's face lifted.

"That's a great way of putting it." She rubbed her freed wrists, like she was a bit uncomfortable. "Can I ask you something?"she said.

"You just did," Walter joked.

"Ha. That's true." She looked less uncomfortable, just thoughtful. "How old are you? What I mean is, when Ms. Jenkins told me to find a Walter Beckett, I was kind of expecting an old guy who was really experienced with his job and had a whole bunch of helpful wise adages to get me through life without blowing up at people every five seconds. But instead I find out you're a child genius! It was a bit of a shock to me."

"I get it. I'm 18 years old. Graduated from MIT 3 years ago, and took the last three years to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. A couple months ago, I got this sticky note on my door with a phone number to text. It sounds stupid, but I did it. It turned out to be H.T.U.V. They had read about me in an old newspaper, and they wanted me to apply. So I did. I got an interview, blew up a Rubik's cube in Ms. Jenkin's face, and she offered me a job!" Walter finished his narrative with a deep breath in.

"A Rubik's cube? Was it anything like the fidget spinner you just locked around my wrists?" Theo looked incredulous. Walter nodded

"A little, maybe. Both are designed to incapacitate enemies without hurting them or people around them."

Theo looked happy. "That's really cool, you know. Because even though they're trying to hurt people, the bad guys have a reason for doing so. Of course, it isn't always justified, but you get my drift." Walter looked down at his brown loafers.

"Yeah...Cause bad guys are people too."


	4. Chapter 4

Walter woke up the next day, ready for work, energized, and excited to make awesome stuff. He leaped out of bed and got into the shower. He finished quickly, brushed his damp hair back, and dried it as much as he could. Walter dressed in his usual collared tee-shirt and brown corduroys, and went to the kitchen, prepping himself a slightly more elaborate than usual breakfast, since he felt like it. He also had extra time, having completed his morning routine so fast.

And so, he made himself french toast. He whipped up the batter and got out some bread. He then sliced, dipped, cooked, and plated the entire loaf. Walter placed two slices on a plate and slathered it in butter. In stark contrast, he only barely drizzled the maple syrup on it.

"Don't worry, Lovey, I didn't forget about you," Walter spoke, setting an additional slice, this one without butter and syrup, in front of the pigeon. She dug in without protest, soon clearing a hole the size of her head in the middle of her meal. Walter chuckled at her eating habits and sat down to eat his own food.

As he ate, he thought. What did he think about Theo? She was definitely cute, but she also didn't seem like a person who would date a lot. He didn't know much about her, except that he couldn't stop thinking about her. Last night, he had meant to sketch some new ideas for gadgets that had been bouncing around in his head for a while, but he ended up sitting there, thinking about her bird-themed glasses. Did she like birds too? Does she have a pet bird? What would Theo name her bird? If it was friendly, maybe her bird and Lovey could have little bird playdates!

"I'm insane!" Walter told himself. "I don't even know if she has a bird!" Walter slumped in his seat, defeatedly. Then he sighed, got up, and put his dirty dish in the dishwasher. He crumbled the rest of Lovey's toast and put it on her plate so she could snack and fly wherever she wanted to while he was gone. The time was 8:45. He decided to leave for work, even though he didn't have to be there till 10:00, and the ride only took half an hour.

"Bye, Lovey!" Walter kissed her head, which she ducked out from under and flapped away. "I'll miss you, too!" He stepped outside, turned on and adjusted his net, and readied his jetpack. Then he blasted off. The jetpack ride felt very short because he was enthralled with all the birds he passed. Pigeons, a couple of red-tailed hawks, even one gray catbird. He circled around the Washington Memorial and took his daily, death-defying descent into the dank depths of H.T.U.V. Then he took off his net, deactivated his jetpack, and took an elevator opposite of the room he had done his interview in further down into the technology wing. This place was a freaking maze and it took him a full 10 minutes to find his cubicle, unpack his backpack and put on his lab coat. He collapsed, exhausted already, in his seat and looked once more into the mirror. Ugh. His hair. Walter pulled out the mini brush in his desk and gave his best shot at flattening the monstrous mess. No such luck. He wasn't sure why he suddenly cared now. It's not like it had mattered before. The time was currently 9:40. He was twenty minutes early, and he had no clue what to do. He sat, throwing his fidget spinner at the test mannequin in his office, He needed to work on its transitions. They were too slow, slithering up and down the arms. There would be a small chance that the criminal would be able to shake the snakes off. If the snakes had stayed on the body long enough to read the biosignature, they might follow the victim until they were handcuffed. He pulled out his sketchbook, doodling ways that he might be able to speed up the transitions. More powerful battery. Condensed wiring. Thinner carbon fiber shell. He'd try to put some of those into effect over the next couple days, with updates. In the meantime, he needed to get the prototype down to manufacturing. He couldn't afford to be late on a deadline so soon into his job. Walter checked his watch again. 9:55. He had enough time to doodle a little longer. He started drawing an updated version of his fidget spinner. What would he call it? He'd have to figure that out soon.

"That's pretty cool," A voice spoke behind him.

"Gah!" Walter startled, falling backward out of his chair, knocking over Theo, who apparently had been standing right behind him!

"Sorry 'bout that," Theo sheepishly looked at him as she brushed herself off and got up off the floor.

"I'm the one who should be sorry! I knocked you onto the floor!"

Theo shrugged. "Well, I literally stood behind you like a creeper, and talked into your ear."

Walter laughed. She had a point. He stood up.

"What were you drawing?" Theo asked. "It looked a lot like your fidget spinner thingy, but cooler."

"Well, there are a couple of design flaws that I have to fix. The fidget is a little slow. There's a small chance that the criminal being handcuffed could shake the pieces off before the magnets fully engage." Theo walked over and grabbed his sketchbook.

"May I?" she asked him. Walter nodded. She began paging through.

"I can barely decipher what's what in here. What are all the scribbles around the edge?"

"Those are notes I take to remind myself what changes I need to make. Around 'Binder Bubbles', it's really bad, because I kept messing up the proportion of micronized rubber powder to water." He took the sketchbook back from her, turned it to the third page and showed her

"See? You can barely see the diagram of the invention."

She took it back and said, "The drawings are super cool though." Walter checked his watch. 10:05.

"Shoot! I gotta get the prototype to Manufacturing. I have to go."

"No problem," Theo told him. "I have a massive scandal to cover up in northern Asia. Lance Sterling's good at his job, but he really messes places up."

Walter smiled, and they both left his office. Theo entered her cubicle right across from his and commenced typing busily. Walter had only made it about ten feet down the walkway when he tripped over an extension cord stretched tautly across the corridor.

"Oof!" He hit the floor hard and face first. Oh...my goodness. His head hurt so badly!

"Hey, you jerk! You just unplugged my 3D printer!" Somebody was shouting at him. The loud noises made the pounding pain worse. He rolled over and tried to apologize, but before he could get any words out, there was more yelling.

"Are you kidding me? You're the one who left its cord in the middle of the flipping hallway! How stupid are you!? You could have hurt someone!" Footsteps ran towards him, but when he looked up, he couldn't see anything. His vision was full of bright lights and blurry enough that all objects in sight slid into swirls of color. Hand locked themselves under his armpits, pulling him to his feet. He vaguely registered warm wetness slipping into his mouth.

"Oh my gosh, Walter, there's blood all over your face." The person carrying him turned away and shouted "You're such an idiot! You DID hurt him! Walter, we're gonna get you to a nurse or something. One sec, let me check the directory." Oh no! Where was his fidget spinner! He patted himself down groggily. It wasn't on him. It must have fallen out when he hit the floor.

"My...spinner," he managed to get out of his mouth. Was his body malfunctioning? He could barely hear himself. His words floated away from his ears on a lazy cloud. Then he realized he had barely talked. "My...spinner!" he said louder.

"Huh?" the person looked up from their phone. "Oh right, your spinner. Hey, you jerk! What's your name?"

"Charles."

"Well, Charles, in exchange for possibly giving poor Walter a concussion, why don't you get him his fidget spinner?"

"Fine." Now he couldn't hear as well. He felt his legs starting to buckle. He leaned against the wall, the only way he could continue to stand.

"Okay Walter, let's go." A hand held out a red fuzzy blob, he took it and stuffed it into a pocket on his coat. Then he took a shaky step, then another, and another, before falling to his knees.

"Oh, dear" Again, those hands hauled him to his feet, before taking his right arm and slinging it around their shoulders. The world spun in circles. He groaned. The person started dragging him down the hallway. He could barely make his legs move. One foot in front of the other. One, two, three, four, five… He lost count. It felt endless, the tortuous trudge towards...where? Where was he going? Who was taking him? He looked up from the floor to try to see their face. Nope. Lights still killed his eyes. He dropped his gaze and managed to keep his limbs moving forward. How long had it been? Oh, please, he silently begged. Let it stop! Then the person stopped, and Walter stumbled over his feet. He heard the sound of a door opening.

"Excuse me, is this the nurse's office?"

"Yes, do you have a problem?"

"A bit of one, yes."

Walter was pulled into the room where the lights intensified, burning his eyes so horribly, his head spun with a renewed vigor.

"What's wrong with him?" Oh crap! He could barely hear. He gasped as his legs fell out from under him, and, for the second time that day, he face-planted. Then blackness swam in and claimed his thoughts.


	5. Chapter 5

"How long was I out?" Walter asked.

The man stood up, walked over, and handed Walter a baby wipes, which Walter used to wipe off the rest of his face. "You've been here for about 6 hours. You blacked out for about a minute in the hall. Got blood all over the carpet. Opened your eyes long enough to apologize, and then fell asleep on the cot. You've been conked out here since then." He stood in front of Walter. "What's your name?"

"Walter."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Do you have any pets?"

"One pigeon named Lovey."

"Good job. You most likely suffered a severe concussion, but you recovered very quickly. Someone who showed symptoms as severe as yours were when you came in here shouldn't be able to answer one of those questions."

"Okay." Walter breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was ok.

"Of course, you'll have to take a month off of work."

"What?!" Walter jumped out of the cot, wincing at the stabs of pain the light gave his eyes. The nurse noticed his squinting.

"Don't do that. No sudden movements for a month or two. No driving around, no sports or inventing. You can only sit and recover. You must be gentle on yourself. Also, dimmed lights wherever you go," He told Walter as he walked to the light switch and turned off two of the fluorescent light bars.

"I just got this job! I can't take a month off of work!"

The nurse looked thoughtful. "The lowest I can give you would be two weeks. It would count as a paid vacation, of course. Your life was in danger here, and if you get a paid vacation to make up for it, you'll be unable to sue us about it."

Walter laid back down on the cot, processing this information. "I wasn't going to sue you in the first place."

"All the same, this company endangered you, and we have to make up for it somehow. You'll be getting this no matter what."

Staring up at the ceiling, Walter asked the nurse "How will I get myself food? How will I exercise?"

"You won't exercise, at least, not for the next month. As for your first question, do you have a parent or sibling you could briefly move in with?"

"No siblings. My parents died when I was young. No living relatives."

"Any close friends?"

"Nope."

"Geez. You're stuck, then. Better find a colleague or acquaintance that likes you enough to move in with you for a month. You really don't have any other options. You just started at this company, so you don't have the money to hire a live-in nurse, and that's the last conceivable choice."

"Well, now what am I supposed to do?"

The nurse circled the room and sat himself down at his desk, filling out numerous forms. "Get everything you need off your desk. Then go home and make some calls. You gotta find someone. You don't have a choice."

"Ok." Walter stretched, and stood up. He took his lab coat from where it was slung over the edge of the cot and put it on.

"Thanks, Mr…?"

The nurse smiled. "Mr. Earnshaw."

"Thank you, Mr. Earnshaw." Walter took his stuff and left.

o0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0o

Walter piled his stuff into his backpack, layering all his different inventions one on top of the other. He zipped it up, and put it on. He grabbed the photo of his mom and him off his desk, tucking it under his arm. Then he walked out. As he turned the corner, he heard his name.

"Walter!" He turned to see Theo racing down the hall, waving some papers. "Hi!" she said. "Going home?"

"Yeah," Walter replied. "For two weeks." Theo's eyes grew wide, and she involuntarily took a step back.

"Wow...that's long."

"Tell me about it," Walter sighed, pulling one hand down his face.

"Well, anyways, what I came to talk to you about." Theo held out the stack of papers. "I took your fidget spinner down to Manufacturing, and they processed and registered it. If you fill out this paperwork, then you'll be able to take out the original prototype whenever you want to alter it or create new updates for its software."

Walter took the paperwork from her. "Whoa. Thanks, Theo. Wait...how'd you get my fidget spinner?"

"When I took you down to the nurse's office-"

"That was you?! I probably got blood all over you. I'm really sorry about that." Walter was mortified. He had hurt himself so bad, that Theo had needed to stop her important assignment to take him down to the nurse's office because he was stupid and clumsy, and got his face all bloodied up.

Theo merely laughed and brushed it off. "It wasn't a problem. No need to apologize. And if you did get blood on this shirt-" she held out the crimson red tee-shirt she was wearing, "-I certainly can't tell. In any case, when I got you down to the nurse's office, you blacked out, and it fell out of your pocket. I took it because you seemed to really want it taken care of."

"I really appreciate it." Walter checked his watch. "I gotta go. The nurse's making me stay home. I also gotta make some calls, arrange some stuff to take care of this mess," Walter said, pointing to his head.

"How are you getting home?" Theo asked him.

"Uh, probably walking. I'm not supposed to jetpack."

"Jetpack?! You gotta be kidding me!"

Walter shrugged, took his pen out of his pocket, and clicked the red ink clicker. He rose upwards on dual jets of air being forced out of the air turbines on the bottom of his backpack. He steadily continued moving upward, until he looked down, and his head spun. That wasn't good. He kept his vision trained on the ceiling above, and gently let himself down until he felt his feet touch the floor. He immediately stumbled.

"Whoops. That usually doesn't happen."

"What?"

"Got all dizzy. This stupid concussion is ruining my life! Now I've gotta walk!" Walter threw his arms up with exasperation. He just couldn't catch a break could he?

"If you need a ride, I can take you," Theo told him.

Walter turned around. "What?" he asked.

"I've got a couple paragraphs to write on the China press release, but after that, I can take you home. It won't be more than an hour."

"Are you sure? I won't be too much of a burden?"

Theo waved her hand dismissively. "No, it's okay. You'll be great. It's usually really lonely on my way home. I live about forty-five minutes from here, and the commute sucks. I'll be glad to have some company for a part of it."

"You're a lifesaver, Theo."

She smiled. "Don't I know it. Take a nap in your office. I'll wake you when I'm ready."


	6. Chapter 6

"Nice car," Walter commented, as he slid into Theo's red Toyota Avalon.

"Thanks. Graduation gift from my parents. Since I was going so far away, they wanted me to have a reliable vehicle." Theo pulled out the keys and started the engine.

"Where are you from?" Walter asked.

"Southwest. I was born in Nevada, moved to New Mexico when I was 4, moved to Arizona when I was 13, and moved to Washington D.C. after graduation."

"So you just decided to try your luck in Washington D.C.?"

"No." Theo made a left turn. " I got a really weird text on the first day of summer vacation asking me to send a sample of one of my stories. I did, and they identified themselves as H.T.U.V., asking for a couple of online interviews. When they offered me the job, I was tempted to say no, but the salary was worth moving across the country. Although-" Here Theo sighed. "-I really do miss the heat."

"It's not exactly warm here," Walter agreed, looking out his window. "Turn right up here."

"Here?"

"Yup. It's the shortcut I like to take."

"This is an alleyway."

Walter grinned. "It's an extra 15 minutes if you go on the roads."

"Then I'll take an extra fifteen minutes. You're on my way home anyway, and I don't want to get in trouble with the law to save 15 minutes."

Walter exhaled in an exaggerated manner, slumping against his car door. "Fine. I guess we can take extra long."

Theo glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "It's not like we're going on a crusade or anything. Quit the whining. Do I turn or go straight here?" she asked, referring to an intersection ahead of them.

"Keep going for another 4 miles. I'll tell you when to turn." Theo obeyed, pressing the gas as they rolled through a yellow light.

"I'm gonna turn on some tunes. What kind of music do you like?"

"Um, I don't really listen to music." The car swerved as Theo jerked her head towards Walter to gape in disbelief. She quickly turned her attention back to the road, going back into her lane, and, thankfully, not causing any harm.

"Sorry. I was a bit shocked. Music is a really integral part of my lifestyle."

"Music, huh? Another angelic sounding singer to make me sound like a croaking frog." Walter slouched in his seat. But to his surprise, Theo burst out laughing.

No. Not laughing. This was too violent for laughing. She was guffawing, tears spilling from her eyes, gasping for her breathe, as she inhaled, and looked out the window. Walter noticed she was drifting out of her lane. She realigned the car and jumped right back into her laughing fit. "Me- a-a good singer! Ha! Oh my goodness! I can't breathe! My abdominal muscle walls are cramping! Hahaha!"

Walter looked at her questioningly. "You know, I'm beginning to wonder if I should be in the car with you."

"I'm usually a very safe driver, you should know. You just keep on killing me!"

"But you said singing was an integral part of your lifestyle!"

"Not singing. Music. Very different. Extremely different in my case. My mom once asked me to stop humming because my sister needed to sleep. I was two rooms away from her and she could still hear the tone-deaf mess I was making of the songs. I do like to play instruments though."

"What instruments?"

"Piano, harmonica, I was learning the trumpet before I left Arizona. Accidently forgot it, though. Funny thing is, I remembered my keyboard, which is a lot bigger and bulkier."

Wow. Walter had no musical talent, but he had always wished he was able to play piano rags or a mournful blues song on the harmonica. Now he could listen to her play! Maybe. If they ever got past being acquaintances and started being real friends.

A phone's ringtone floated out of Theo's pocket. She pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to Walter.

"Tell me who that is, would you?"

Walter read the name displayed on the screen of the phone. "Robert Davis."

"Aw, crap! I told him to wait till I got my paycheck!" Theo exclaimed.

"What?" Walter was very confused

"He's my landlord. I don't have enough money to pay my first month's rent, so he and I agreed to wait until I got my first paycheck from H.T.U.V. He's notorious for being impatient, so I'd bet that this is what the call is about."

She snatched the phone from his hand, accepted the call, and pinned it between her ear and shoulder, all while keeping one hand on the wheel.

"Hi, Mr. Davis!" Walter tried in vain to listen to the unintelligible voice that was squeaking on the other end of Theo's phone. Her mouth curved down in a frown.

"But I thought we agreed-" A screaming voice loud enough for Walter to hear, although not decipher, came from the phone.

"Well, your bad money choices aren't my problem!" Theo leaned away from her phone. The screaming grew so intense, Walter covered his ears. "I told you! I don't have my money yet. You said I could pay in a week as long as I paid interest!" Walter watched in slight amusement as Theo's face grew red listening to her landlord. She made an aggressive turn onto Walter's street.

"Alright! I'll be out by tomorrow. I wouldn't want to rent from a dirtbag like you anyways!" Steaming, Theo hung up. She pulled up in front of Walter's house, and face planted into her steering wheel.

"I'm screwed," she moaned.

"What's the problem?" Walter asked although he was pretty sure he knew.

"My landlord is forcing me out. He gambled away almost all his property last night, and needed my money to clear up the last of his debts." Theo's voice was muffled by the large piece of plastic she was leaning her face into. " I don't have anywhere to live now."

The idea snuck into his mind, slowly, until it was fully formed. All he had to do was bring it up. But he didn't know if she would think it would be okay. After all, they had literally just met yesterday.

"Um, you wanna stay with me for a bit?"

Theo perked up. "Say what?"

Walter swallowed hard. "Well, I'm under medical orders to live with someone for the next couple of weeks, because of the whole concussion thingy. My parents died when I was younger, and I have no other relatives. I also just started at H.T.U.V., so I don't have the money to hire a nurse. If you were to stay, you would basically have to make sure I didn't die. I'd give you free room and board if you want to…" He trailed off, unsure of what to say next. He glanced at Theo's face. She looked thoughtful.

"I wouldn't be too much of a bother?"

"You're helping me just as much as I'm helping you."

Theo smiled wide. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I didn't know how I was going to get all my stuff out of my apartment and into a new place by tomorrow."

Walter shrugged. "It's no problem really. I will warn you though. My house is covered in science experiments, and you might legitimately get trapped in a giant bubble for a couple of hours."

She laughed. "That would be fantastic," she replied.

Grinning, Walter got out of the car. Walking up to his house, he called "Thanks for the ride! I'll leave the door open!"

Theo waved from her window and sped off.

**A/N: Hi people! Thanks so much for reading my stories! I know I'm not exactly playing to a large audience here, but every read I get is so great. I don't show my writing to anyone offline, so it's fantastic that I can write online and get feedback. Please, I like to write requests, so if you have an idea, DM me, and I'll do my best to get it on my stories. I appreciate each and every one of you! **  
**Have a great day!**


	7. Chapter 7

Walter's head hurt again. It wasn't as bad as it had been last time, but it was enough to make him want to fall into a pit and die when he opened his eyes. What had Mr. Earnshaw said? Keep the lights dimmed? A concerned Lovey fluttered to his shoulder and watched as he groped his way across the room from where he had been collapsed on the couch to a nearby light switch. He flipped it off, and his head breathed a sigh of relief. Why had he been sleeping on the couch? He had a perfectly good bed just down the hall.

Ah. Now he remembered. He had been trying to get the guest room ready for Theo, and had pushed himself too hard. He had barely made it to the couch before fainting. Oh no! Theo! What time was it? Walter checked his holowatch. 10:00 P.M. He had slept a total of 9 hours today, out of bed. Shoot. Well, not much to do but wait until Theo got here. Lovey tugged on his ear gently to show affection, then flew off to use her bird bathroom in her (barely used) felt too restless to do any actual inventing, so he drew. He drew ideas of his, crazy ones that weren't in any way scientifically possible. Like a piece of chocolate that would melt in your mouth with a rubbery substance mixed in, coating the inside of your mouth with brown rubber and creating an effective gag. But it would most likely block airways and suffocate a few people, so Walter put a little red x on the top corner of that page. That was his symbol for ideas that definitely wouldn't work. Next came a serum that would turn you invisible. Not possible, simply because all eukaryotic cells would be severely damaged if they changed colors and tried to change back again. Another little red x. Maybe if he made it a paint of sorts. Perhaps then he could- no. What about the eyes? The eyes would be totally visible. And it's not like you could paint over them. Little red x for serum paint, too. Walter gave up, threw his sketchbook on the ground, and lay back down on the couch.

The doorbell rang. Walter leapt up and practically yanked the door open. Theo smiled back at him.

"Hi. That took a while, didn't it?" Her breath was slightly heavy. Walter noticed that she was carrying several heavy suitcases and a keyboard. He quickly stepped out of her way.

"Guest bedroom's down the hallway, second door on the right!" He called after her, as she made her way into his house with surprising speed for someone laden with so many pounds of stuff.

"Thanks!" she called back. After a minute, she was back. "I have one last thing to get. I didn't want to hurt him when I was carrying out all my other stuff." She ran out through the door, and came back with a cage.

A bird cage.

"This is Emmy. Short for Emerson. He's a peach-faced lovebird. They're native to Africa, but they've become a part of the environment in Arizona, because of the heat. I do love my birds."

Walter whistled, and Lovey flew out and perched on his shoulder. "This is Lovey," he said, gesturing to her. "Common domestic pigeon." He held out his hand, and Lovey hopped down onto it. She peered into the cage, and let out a small twitter. A series of quiet cheeps came back from inside.

"You wanna let him out?" Walter asked her.

"Is that okay? Usually, he roams around at my house, but he's not very oriented with new places. I was keeping him in his cage until he got used to my new place. Until he does, he kinda flies around and bumps into stuff."

"As long as it doesn't give him a concussion." He laughed under his breath. "You know. Like me." Walter reentered his house, and Theo followed him, shutting the door with her foot. Walter led her over to Lovey's space.

"You can put his cage here for now." Walter motioned to a spot next to Lovey's nest. Theo set down the cage, opened it up, and took out Emmy. Walter marveled at his plumage. He was emerald green all over except for his face, which was peach(duh), and under his wings, where a few small turquoise streaks were barely visible. Emmy squeaked and looked up at Walter.

"Hey, buddy." Walter offered his finger for Emmy to stand on. Emmy leaned down and looked at it with one eye, as if to consider stepping on. Instead he gave Walter's finger a quick nip and then attempted to fly away. He soon hit a wall.

"Oops! So sorry!" Theo exclaimed. She rushed over to where Emmy was picking himself off the ground. She stroked his feathers and plucked him up. "Is your finger ok?" She asked Walter.

"Yeah, it's fine." Walter held his finger. "Just a bit of blood." It was true. A bead of blood pushed itself up from inside the nick. "I'll go put a bandage on." He walked out of the room, and into the kitchen, taking out the little first-aid kit he kept under the sink. Unzipping the case and removing the Band-Aid inside from its wax paper cover, he applied it to his injury, and cleaned up his mess.

"Hey, Theo!" he called, as he bent down to replace the kit.

"Yeah?"

"It'd be pretty sweet if I turned into a Werebird, wouldn't it?" Theo snorted.

"What would you look like?" she asked him. "A big peach-faced lovebird?"

"Actually…" What had started out as a joke jogged some wheels in his mind. His brain slowly continued putting pieces together until he had it. This could be very useful! Walter ran back to the couch where Theo was sitting and grabbed his sketchbook from the cushion next to her. He then sat down, opened to a new page and began feverishly sketching. He knew he sounded strange, muttering under his breath as he usually did when he had a great idea, but he didn't stop. He barely registered Theo's weight being removed from the cushions as she left the room. Then he began the sciencey part, rebuilding the genome to that of a pigeon's. He completed replacing the bits in the double-helix before resting his aching hand. But he couldn't take a break yet! The serum would take a few days to create, and probably up to two years to perfect. He would need to start the process immediately.

When Theo left her room after setting up her keyboard and unpacking her clothes, it was 1:00 AM. Walter was in his dining room/lab, condensing strands of DNA collected from Lovey into microscopic balls he would place in a mixture of water and a chemical that would amplify the pigeon DNA, recreate the different amino acids between the human's DNA and the pigeon's DNA, and then replace every difference over a couple of minutes. He had instituted a failsafe, so he could determine if it was safe before he tried drinking it. He'd take a feather from Lovey and drop it into the solution. If it disappeared, the solution was safe. If it sunk to the bottom and turned red, it was going to burn every atom in his body to a crisp. It had taken some detailed coding, but he had managed it in just 3 hours. Theo entered the room, and watched him work, leaning against the wall as Walter placed the liquid in its preparation cell. It would stay there for the next 4 days. Then he would see if it worked.

"Hey...Walter?"

"Yeah…" he replied in a distracted tone, as he clicked the serum's holster into place.

"Um, did the doctor not just tell you to rest, and specifically, no inventing?"

"Uh-huh...Lemme just...And done!"

"Yeah, that's great. Um, what's done, exactly?" Theo scratched the back of her neck in confusion.

"Oh! Hah!" Walter lifted his goggles with an oven mitt, and peered at Theo. "You have no idea what I'm doing, do you?"

"Not a clue."

"Well," Walter leaned across the table, took hold of Theo's wrist and pulled her to the other side so he could explain. "I have just spent the last 3 hours designing a potion, that when ingested, will turn a human into a pigeon! Look here." He moved the eyepieces of his microscope towards Theo. She obliged him, lowering her face down to look through it. "That's Lovey's DNA. I mixed it with an activation chemical and diluted it with water so that over a period of a couple minutes, a human can be completely transformed into a bird! The actual serum is over here." He stepped to the preparation cell and removed its lid. Theo looked inside."It has to thicken and condense in order to have enough of an effect on the body. If the serum's too thin, the human ends up with some feathers and a beak. Too thick-" he lifted his pointer finger to his head. "-your brain will literally burn inside your skull." Theo lifted her hands to her mouth in an expression of astonishment.

"That's flippin' awesome!"

"The transformation into a pigeon?"

"Well that too, but mostly the burning of the brain inside the skull! I mean how would that even work? There's no oxygen for the fire to catch light and the wet brain would extinguish the fire almost as soon as it started. That's one funky serum!"

Walter cocked an eyebrow. "You're a really interesting person, you know that?"

Theo just smiled and walked to the hallway entrance. "I gotta go to sleep. I have to be at work in 9 hours, and some of us don't have a concussion as an excuse. G'night."

"Sleep well. I just gotta clean...up this… methhh." What? Why was his voice slurring? Not again! Come on, body, Walter thought. Work already! His vision blurred at the edges, and he lost his balance. Leaning against his wall to support his failing body, he looked up at Theo, who had already crossed the dining room and grabbed Walter's elbow, with a worried look on her face.

"Walter, what's wrong? Are you ok?"

No, I'm definitely not ok! Walter wanted to speak, but his tongue was limp in his mouth. He couldn't do anything.

"Walter, I'm taking you to the hospital. This is not normal." She looped his arm around her neck, supporting most of Walter's body weight, as he could do no more than stumble weakly across the ground. Then, halfway to the door, Walter gave out completely.

"Walter, your face is drooping. Can you smile?" Theo asked urgently. Walter gave his best attempt at a smile, but he could only move half his face. "I think you're having a stroke. We're not driving to the hospital. I'm calling an ambulance."

Walter felt numb. He wasn't all too sure what was going on anymore. His vision swirled in circles. And for the second time that day, he lost consciousness.


	8. Chapter 8

Theo sat in the hard plastic chair, jogging her leg up and down impatiently. In front of her, Walter was laid out straight on a hospital bed. A coma, the doctors had told her, induced by his hemorrhagic stroke, which, in turn, was induced by the concussion he had received earlier in the day. Stupid Charles! When she got back to work, she'd grab him by the shirt collar and throttle him. Speaking of work, she did need to call in sick today. It was, she checked her phone, 3:00 AM, and she hadn't slept a wink. She pulled up a message addressed to Ms. Jenkins, and shot off a message.

_Ms. Jenkins,_

_I regret to inform you that I will not be at work today. I had to take Walter to the hospital. He has had a stroke, and has no family to take care of him. As he is providing me with a place to live currently, I am going to manage his situation until he is cognizant enough to do so himself._

_Best regards,_

_Theodora Wilkinson_

She shut off her phone and leaned back, trying to make herself comfortable in her flipping chair. Who manufactured this piece of junk, the devil himself?! Theo closed her eyes in an attempt to fall asleep, but her phone buzzed, signaling a response from Ms. Jenkins.

_Ms. Wilkinson,_

_I am deeply grieved to hear of Mr. Beckett's accident. Would you mind sending me a photo so I can authenticate your story? I do trust you, but too many employees have tried to pull the wool over my eyes and claim an injury to get out of work. Once you have done so, I will proceed with instructions. If you cannot, then you will be fired from H.T.U.V. _

Theo didn't blame Ms. Jenkins for the harsh terms presented. She merely snapped a photo, and sent it off to her boss. Almost immediately after the message had been marked as delivered, the … that meant Ms. Jenkins was typing popped up. It took about 2 minutes for the message to come through, but when it did, it read:

_I am glad to see that you are being honest. I didn't want to lose such a skilled employee. You will receive enough paid time off to take care of Walter and his stuff until he either completely recovers or dies._

Theo replied.

_Are you sure? I was just planning to take a couple days off until he got out of his coma._

_Quite sure. Mr. Beckett has no one else. He should at least have you. He also happens to be our most talented inventor. Don't tell him I said that. I must retain a professional air with all my employees, and that means no favorites._

_Thank you ma'am_

_I assure you, it is no problem._

Theo clicked off her phone once more, and tried to fall asleep in the stupid chair again. But she was interrupted by the entrance of a nurse. The nurse, in her forties perhaps, smiled sadly at Theo. "Girlfriend or sister?" she asked.

"Neither," Theo answered. "Just his friend." The nurse walked over to Walter's bag and began changing one of the many IV bags that was keeping him alive.

"Where's his family?"

"He has none."

"Ah." An uncomfortable silence followed. Neither of them knew what to say. The nurse finished her task and began a new one. She wiped him down with a sponge and put that away. Then she spoke.

"I'm about to change his catheter bag. You might want to look away if you're squeamish." Theo obliged, turning her head to the side. After a couple minutes the nurse said "I'm done." Theo relaxed her neck.

"Do you know when he'll recover?" The nurse shook her head.

"Comas are extremely unpredictable. Most recover within a couple days or weeks, but some can stay unresponsive for months or even years. Sometimes, they don't wake up. If he does, he might not be able to recover completely." Theo opened her mouth to respond, but closed it soon after. What could she say to that? Was it possible she'd have paid leave off of work for years? Could Walter possibly not survive? One thing was for certain. As soon as she got her hands on Charles, he would wish that he was the one in the coma!

"I'm going home," she said as she stood up and stretched. She wrote down her phone number on a gum wrapper in her pocket and handed it to the nurse. "Can you make sure the hospital contacts me if anything changes?" The nurse took the wrapper and offered a sad smile once more.

"I'll make sure the front desk gets this."

"Thanks."

Theo walked out of the room, leaving her sense of security behind with her only friend. Ever.


	9. Chapter 9

"Emmy? I'm back, Bud!" Theo called out as she walked in the house. Her faithful pet flew to her shoulder the moment he saw her familiar face. She stroked his feathered head a few times and then turned her attention towards the house. "Lovey, dear? Where are you hiding?" A quiet, almost mournful trill came from the back of the house. Theo followed it to a room near the backyard, a room that only could have been Walter's. Several science kits that looked as if they were meant for 10-year-olds were opened and the contents were spread across the floor, mixed in beakers and hooked together in an intricate pattern of clear plastic tubes, ranging in size from the thickness of a spaghetti noodle to the diameter of Theo's thumb. Theo carefully stepped over this mess, looking for the source of the sad little coos. She found Lovey sitting on Walter's pillow, in a feathery ball. Emmy hopped down from Theo's shoulder, and made his way across the rumpled blankets to the other side of the bed, sitting down next to Lovey. Using his beak, he flattened a couple of Lovey's crazy feathers that had become ruffled while Theo was gone. He trilled, in a tone that almost sounded like a question. Lovey deflated more, and Emmy moved closer. Theo could only assume that Lovey was grieving for her owner. She wasn't sure how Lovey even knew what Walter was going through. Theo decided that birds were more intuitive than she had previously thought. She left the room.

o0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0oo0O0o

Days passed. Then weeks. Soon a month had gone by, and Walter had shown no signs of waking up anytime soon. Theo had stopped hoping for a miracle. She decided that at the end of this week, if Walter hadn't improved at all, she was going to Ms. Jenkins and asking for her job back, and maybe, well...she might have to pull the plug on him. Monday morning, Theo woke herself up with a steaming cup of tea. She didn't really enjoy it, but its caffeine combined with the amount of sugar she added to ensure it got down her throat made it somewhat palatable, and certainly brought her to her senses when she couldn't get her mind to focus. She was using her salary to pay Walter's hospital bills, and since she had just started, her salary wasn't exactly high. Theo had begun skipping breakfast and sometimes lunch to make ends meet. Thus, she needed all the energy she could get for as little money as possible. Theo started to look like a starved person two weeks into her little diet. Her cheeks were sunken, and her ribs were more prominent than ever before in her life. She was suffering, but no matter the pain, she kept reminding herself how Walter was going through rose from her seat at the table and took care of her cup. Then she vacuumed the house, dusted the blinds, and straightened her room. She had nothing to do, and Walter's house was much cleaner than it had been when Theo had moved in. Thoroughly exhausted, she laid herself down on her bed, promptly falling asleep at 10:30 AM. At 1:45, she was startled awake by her ringtone. She didn't bother checking the caller ID, just pressed accept, and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" Theo spoke.

"Is this Ms. Wilkinson?" A formal voice answered her.

"Yeah, it is." Theo yawned. She didn't get much sleep anymore, and last night she had caught about 2 hours before she woke up for no reason.

"This is Sibley Memorial Hospital. We're calling on behalf of Walter Beckett?" Theo sat straight up, her fatigue vanishing in moments.

"Has anything changed?" she asked urgently.

"He has begun to show reflexes. Whereas before he was completely still when he was pinched or poked, he grimaced this morning when that occurred. We have a hopeful prognosis for him." Theo was breathless.

"Can I come in to see him?"

"Visiting hours are from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Have a good day, Ms. Wilkinson."

They hung up.

Walter was alive and moving.

Theo hurriedly got out of bed and changed into new clothes. She ran a few strokes through her hair with a comb and then put it in a messy bun. She grabbed her car keys and ran to the car. As she backed out, she worried. What if this was a false alarm? What if he was just coming out of the coma into a vegetative state? Why was she so worked up about this? It was only her colleague! She'd literally known him for two days before he went into a coma! She was excited but she knew that getting her hopes up only to have them shot down would be terrible, and she might not deal with it well. She hoped that this once she would be able to keep her emotions in check.

15 minutes later, Theo was waiting in an elevator, her visitor's badge crumpled in her tightly closed fist. Her nerves were zapping back and forth, and her uneasiness was apparent to anyone who looked at her. An intense glower graced her now thin face. She bit her lip hard to stop her jaw from trembling. She was so horribly nervous, and she had no idea why. The door opened to floor 4, where the ICU was. Theo stepped out, relaxed her face, and continued down the hall. At the nurse's station, she waved hello to the nurse on duty, sanitized her hand, and found Walter's room. Outside, she paused. Taking a deep breath, she entered Walter's room. It wasn't much different from her visit last week. The only thing she could pick out that was noticeable was a few less tubes entering Walter's body. He still had an IV in each wrist and a catheter, but the ventilator was gone, which meant he could breathe on his own now. His eyes were closed. There was a nurse sponging him down.

"Afternoon. Here to visit Walter?" The nurse sounded slightly surprised. Theo supposed that was fair, as she had only visited four or five times.

"Yes. They called this morning, saying he had improved slightly?"

"Indeed." The nurse put down her sponge and went to Walter's uncovered feet. She lightly pinched his pinkie toe. Theo watched closely as the muscles in Walter's face briefly tightened and then slackened.

"May I try?" The nurse pulled Walter's hand out from under his blanket. Theo took his middle finger and pinched, about as lightly as the nurse had done. Walter's face tightened again.

And his eyes opened.

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Walter felt good. He was calm and secure. He was in a warm place where he could create his own worlds and no one could judge him for what he said or did. He floated in this easy trance for a long time. It felt like a thousand years before he was aware of anything else besides himself. He felt a pinch, somewhere, but he couldn't determine where exactly on his body. He brushed it off and continued in his trance. But later(Again he wasn't exactly sure when. Time held no meaning for him anymore.), he felt it again. Soon after, a third pinch followed, higher up on his body. But this one shot through him with an intensity he hadn't previously known. It jump started his brain, and his eyes opened to the light, which he immediately backed away from, crunching back into himself to form a small ball. He was dazed and confused. The light was a stark contrast compared to the darkness he had spent so long wandering aimlessly through. It struck his brain like a bolt of lightning. He tried to communicate, but he could barely move. It took an immense amount of effort to even keep his eyes open, but while he was able, he looked around, trying to understand as much as he could before his fatigue forced his eyes shut once more. All he saw was white. Noises babbled in the background. He didn't have the mental ability to decode the meaning behind them so he didn't try. Slowly, he slipped back into a melty blackness that enveloped his mind.

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"He's awake! He's awake!" Theo called. The nurse who had been watching left the room presumably to get a doctor. Theo grasped Walter's arm, as his head swiveled lazily around looking at the entire room. She wasn't even sure if he could hear or understand her, but she talked anyways.

"Walter, stay with me, ok?" His eyes were unfocused, and he looked right at her. Theo could tell, though, that he wasn't really seeing her. His eyes began to close and Theo saw that he was slipping away from her again. "Walter! WALTER! Doctor! Nurse! Somebody! He's going back under!"

The nurse came back with a doctor. She immediately set about changing one of Walter's IV's out for a new one. The doctor stood back, hands on her hips.

"That's all we can do for now," she said. "We'll just have to see if he comes out again."

"Can I stay to see if it works?" Theo asked.

"You know the rules, Ms. Wilkinson. Till 9:00 PM. No later," The nurse replied.

"Okay. Okay." Theo sat down on the floor.

"There's a chair, ma'am."

"I'd much rather sit on the floor than that chair."

"Fair point. If you need a nurse, press the call button." The nurse pointed at a small blue button on a remote on Walter's bedside table, and then she and the doctor left the room. Theo settled in for a long wait.

A few hours later, Walter began to groan and shift, barely moving in his bed, but moving all the same. Theo hopped up from the floor, and quickly pushed the pale blue button shown to her in rapid bursts, four or five times. 30 seconds later, a nurse walked into the room.

"What's wrong, Theo?" she asked. It was the same nurse who had been on duty the night(or morning) Theo had brought Walter in.

"Nothing," Theo answered. "But I think Walter might be waking up." The nurse began propping Walter up in his bed.

"Help me, will ya?" she grunted under his weight.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Theo rushed to the other side of the bed, grabbing Walter by his armpit, and worked in tandem with the nurse to shift him backward, until his back was solidly against the headboard of his cot. They both stood back, a little out of breath, watching expectantly. Walter's head, flopped to the other shoulder, and his eyes opened a smidge. Theo and the nurse held their breath, watching and waiting for anything else to happen. Walter began to move his lips, staring upwards.

"F-f-f-o-e?" he said. Foe? Theo thought. She wasn't a foe. She hadn't said one mean thing to him while he was awake! Walter looked down and furrowed his brow, closing his eyes all the way.

"Th-th-th-o-e." Walter said this time. The nurse spoke.

"He's exhausted. I don't think he's woken up all the way yet, but he might be trying to say your name."

Theo understood. That made much more sense. Walter leaned over on his side. He closed his eyes and fell still again. At first Theo was sure he'd fallen back into his coma. But then she heard snores emanating from his nose. She giggled and said "I think he's better now."


	10. Chapter 10

Walter was meandering through a landscape that looked as if it had been envisioned by a surrealist. Bright colors painted the sky, mixing in bursts that rivaled the Northern Lights. Dusty hills surrounded him. Strange creatures that looked like spiders with tentacles living under the ground burrowed upward and wrapped themselves around his legs. They were only about the size of a mouse, but nearly 70 coated his feet, ankles, calves, and they were starting to climb upwards toward his thighs. Slightly slowed down by these, he plodded on through the never-ending, never-changing landscape. The squid-spider-mice remained firmly anchored, and they started to itch his skin. Walter grabbed a strong hold on one of them, and attempted to yank it off, to no avail. After two more tries, he finally removed it and threw it as far away as possible. When he looked down, he watched as a stream of blood gushed from where the thing had been. But it didn't look like his blood. It was a hot, sparkly pink. The squid-spider-mice were sucking his(kind of?)blood! He started to run, scraping the things off as he did so, and simultaneously carving deep scratches in his legs when he missed his marks. The loss of blood had a profound effect on him eventually, and he collapsed in a valley between two hills, coating his body in dust. There he lay, sweaty, covered in sparkly pink blood, and panting. Just as he thought this terrifying nightmare couldn't get any worse, hundreds of the squid-spider-mice burrowed up from underneath his resting place, grabbing hold of him with their tiny tentacles, and dragging him down, down, down into a dusty darkness…

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"Gah!" Walter sat up abruptly in...was he in a hospital bed?! What happened to him? His phone was charging on the floor next to his cot. The time was 10:34 AM. He surveyed the scene. No one else was around. The light blue nurse calling button was next to him. He pressed it. A nurse entered the room, walking at a fast pace, and as she caught sight of him, gasped.

"You're awake," she whispered.

"Um, hi?" Walter said.

"Theo will be ecstatic," the nurse replied.

Theo! He had forgotten about Theo! "How long was I out?" he asked. The nurse checked the calendar on the foot of his bed.

"A month, 4 days, and 7 hours." Walter's mouth fell open. He couldn't even speak.

"Theo's been living by herself in my house, and paying my bills, feeding my pigeon for a MONTH?!" He immediately began getting out of bed, and lasted for about 2 seconds before nearly strangling himself on the IV hooked in the soft underside of his wrist. The nurse joined him by his bed, and gently pushed him back down.

"Mr. Beckett, you need to recover more before you can check out. We'll call Theo and have her come in." Walter reluctantly reclined back in his bed.

"It will have to suffice," he grumbled.

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Ten minutes later, Theo ran at full speed into his room. Or, he thought it was Theo. She was so emaciated, he couldn't be sure. Someone called from the hallway, asking that she refrained from running. "Walter!" she cried. "I'm so happy you're awake." She leaned down and hugged him. He could feel her spinal cord protruding from her skin. He released himself from the hug, and held Theo's very bony shoulders.

"Oh my gosh, Theo, what happened?"

"Oh, this?" She looked down at her body. "Had to make ends meet somehow." She shrugged and smiled. Walter leaned back.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you would be the one in charge of my bills and stuff. I'll pay you back as soon as I'm out of this bed."

"No problem. Ms. Jenkins continued paying you your salary even while you were in your coma. I have it stored away in your safe."

"You haven't used any of my money to pay my hospital bills?! No wonder you're starving!"

Theo crossed her arms and glared at him. "I'm not starving!" she said. "I didn't want to spend money that wasn't mine! It's disrespectful!"

"I appreciate that, but if you can clearly see the bones in your arms, then feel free to keep yourself alive by using my money to buy yourself some food!" Theo raised her hands in an appeasing gesture.

"Ok, ok, I understand." Her eyes softened. "I was really worried about you." Walter felt his heart rate speed up and blood rise to his cheeks.

"Um...thanks," he said, looking down. Theo's phone dinged. She checked it

"Ooh!" she exclaimed. "Now that you're back up, Ms. Jenkins says I can go back to work."

"Why weren't you at work?" Walter asked.

"She gave me paid leave while you were in your coma."

"Oh. Cool."

"Well, I gotta bounce." Theo stood up and walked to the doorway. "See ya!" She waved goodbye and left the room.

"Theo!" he called after her. "Please don't forget to feed yourself!" But she was already gone. The nurse reentered the room. "Hi, um-" he began. "How much longer do I have to stay here?"

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Two weeks later, Walter's doctor walked into his room. Walter was pacing his room impatiently, occasionally taking breaks to stare out his window, where a sun shone brightly from a cloudless blue sky over a courtyard spotted with trees.

"Mr. Beckett?" Walter turned around.

"Yes?"

"We've decided that you have recovered enough to check out of the hospital. You can leave as soon as you have a ride. You cannot drive yourself yet."

"Ok." Walter appeared calm on the outside, but on the inside, he was flipping out. He finally got to leave! After a month and a half! He picked up his phone, and called an Uber. About five minutes later, he was notified that his ride was a minute away. He changed into the clothes that the nurse had left for him, the clothes he was wearing when Theo dropped him off. He checked out the hospital, and stood in the parking lot. A car pulled in thirty seconds later. The window rolled down to reveal a person probably around 20. He had multiple piercings in his ears and a nose ring. His light brown hair sported frosted tips.

"Walter?" he asked.

"Yeah. Luke?"

"Yup. Let's go."

Walter pulled open the door, slid in, and closed the door behind him.

"Where do you wanna go?" Walter gave the driver his address on a piece of paper, and then leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms above his head, and rubbing the bandages covering his wounds that were healing, where the IVs had been stabbed into his wrists. They itched. Badly. Bored, Walter closed his eyes to rest them until he was back home. The next thing he knew, Luke was leaning back in his seat, keeping one hand on the steering wheel while using the other one to gently shake Walter's shoulder. "Hey," he was saying. "Hey, wake up."

Walter blinked open his eyes, and yawned. "Oh, sorry," he said, kind of embarrassed. Luke waved his apology away.

"It's fine," he said. "You'd be surprised how often it happened. Anyway, you're here." Luke gestured to Walter's house behind him. Walter smiled.

"Sweet. Thanks a lot, Luke." He began to get out of the car.

"Bye," Luke called, before Walter closed the door. "Have a good day!"

"Thanks, you too!" Walter answered. He shut the door, and walked to the house's front door. He tried the handle. The door was unlocked, so he opened it, and walked in.

**A/N: Hey y'all! This is the second to last chapter. I hope you have enjoyed reading this! I've never actually had this much fun writing a story before. Please don't hesitate to leave a review or like/follow the story! It makes me so happy every time I see someone do it. I hope to write more stories in different genres as well, so watch for me! Anyways, have a fantastic day, and you are the best!**


	11. AN

**A/N: Hi guys! I have decided that I will not post the ending I wrote. It's the ending I like, but it may not be the one for you. So I thought I'd let you all make up your own endings that you like. I hope you do so, and if any of you actually write it, and want to publish it on my story, DM me and I'll add it as a chapter and give credit to you at the top. Thanks so much for all you who liked it or followed it, and an extra-special thanks to those of you who gave me reviews. I appreciate you guys, and please stay safe during these terrifying times!**


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